Living on the floor of Turkish...

He always wrote poetry, he produced. Until October 15, 2008, when he left us... A 94-year-old life that spent a period as an officer at the borders during wartime, a period as a public inspector; but whose essence was literature... Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, a poet who was a socialist and whose socialism was rooted in respect for people and human life...

In an interview, he said, "Separation has another greatness that is painful, that will be painful. Which I hold above all those I have counted: to be separated from Turkish." He emphasized his love for our language with the words, 'Is being Turkish not first being Turkish?'...

A LIFE WHOSE ESSENCE IS LITERATURE

Dağlarca, who began to make a name for himself with his poem "Yavaşlayan Ömür" (The Slowing Life) published in 'İstanbul Dergisi' in 1933, published his first book, "Havaya Çizilen Dünya" (The World Drawn in the Air), on August 30, 1935, the day he graduated from the War Academy as an officer. Always producing until his last breath and signing more than 140 books, over 60 of which were poetry books, Dağlarca was deemed worthy of many awards in Turkey and internationally, and his books were translated into foreign languages.

The master poet, who is the representative of epic poetry in our literature, examined the great wars in our history in epic form. His poems "Çakırın Destanı" (The Epic of Çakır), "Üç Şehitler Destanı" (The Epic of the Three Martyrs), "İstiklal Savaşı" (War of Independence), "Samsun’dan Ankara’ya" (From Samsun to Ankara), "İstiklal Savaşı-İnönüler" (War of Independence-İnönüs), "İstanbul Fetih Destanı" (The Epic of the Conquest of Istanbul), "Malazgirt Ululaması" (The Glorification of Manzikert), and "Yedi Memetler, Çanakkale Destanı" (The Seven Memets, The Epic of Gallipoli) can be cited as examples.

'I FEEL COLD WITHOUT POETRY'

Throughout his life, Dağlarca always said 'Turkish' and wanted to feel in Turkish. He emphasized this in his interviews and speeches: "My Turkish speaks poetry to me. I am just listening to Turkish, I am not adding anything, it only remains for me to write what my Turkish tells me. Poetry is the most national structure. Nations become immortal as long as they protect this structure based on their own language."

He wrote and spoke poetry for 75 years: “…Poetry does not let go of my collar. It does not let me sleep at night. I feel cold without poetry. No matter what I wear, I cannot warm up without poetry...”

“…If they told me 100 lashes after every poem, I would agree. I love writing poetry that much…”

He also wrote poems for children, and expressed his love for them with the words, “The more children read me, the more I live”…

Like all people, he loved and fell in love; “That happened to me three or four times. I was always very worn out. I became tearful while listening to all the songs. I started to find even the most mediocre songs real.”

When it came to the choice of subject, Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, who knew no boundaries, showed the same care in language and wrote his poems with different linguistic characteristics.
After the 1960s, his sensitive attitude towards current issues he included in his poems increased even more over time: he sang the melody of a wide geography with his books "Cezayir Türküsü" (Song of Algeria), "Hiroşima" (Hiroshima), "Vietnam Körü" (Vietnam Blind), and "Nötron Bombası" (Neutron Bomb).

“I have given love as much as my weight
To the golden scales of the world
Make your voices heard, youth of distant nations
I have stretched all my antennas.”

In his 'Epic of Gallipoli', he also expressed his reproach in his 'Song' where he was friendly yet angry at the distant nations that the Westerners dragged into the Gallipoli War:

"Why do you come, my brave Senegalese
Is it not enough that you gave your goods for years
Will you also give so many lives
Why do you come, my brave Australian
What do your mountains want
From my mountains?
Why do you come, my brave Indian
Will you be happy if the one who eats you also eats me?
In those holy waters of the Ganges?"

"MY TURKISH, MY VOICE FLAG"

The master poet, who showed the value and importance he attached to our language with the line 'My Turkish, my voice flag', said, "This is an endless subject. Is being Turkish not first being Turkish?" He was also suggesting the establishment of a ministry related to language.

He did not pay attention to the criticisms of some circles that he 'simplified the language excessively' and continued to move on his path. With his impressive language and symbolic expression, he became 'a school by himself', in his own words, in his poetry journey that lasted 75 years.

He left us 17 years ago today at the age of 94... I commemorate Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca with respect once again, with the belief that we will take more ownership of the 'voice flag' he waved throughout his life, our 'Turkish'.